Day 3: Washington DC

Today was the big day! The reason we are in DC in the first place; to share our Ultimate Mentor Adventure experience.

The morning started out with Elaine, Mom, and I grabbing an Irish breakfast down in the Phoenix Park Hotel restaurant and then taxied over to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. After making it to the actual room where our panel was held we had some down time and Jordan and I of course took the opportunity to take our heels off. (We're still relatively inexperienced in the ways of big girl shoes.)

Soon, 11:30 rolled around and we had an audience of approximately 30 people to present to.  Re-watching the video from the week in California brought back a lot of memories that I hope can be created for more girls.

The enthusiasm of the audience members was great to see and they asked questions on how to make science interesting to kids.  At one point, three of them were discussing aloud with one another whilst the rest of the panel listened on.

The panel went splendidly and after we collected a few new contacts like Lisa Vazquez, who works at the Department of Education, and an eighth grade science “teacher of the year” from Stafford, VA.

One special treat was catching the last half of Dorris Kurns Goodwin’s talk. Acclaimed historian, author, and is the reason the Lincoln movie was a success; basically, the ideal person for women to look up to. She’s driven towards her goals, and is bursting with stories that had the whole auditorium rolling. It was a great honor to hear her journey.

Post-presentation we hiked over to a delicious Japanese restaurant called Tony Cheng. And might I say, I would highly recommend it if you’re ever in the area.

After a lively lunch it was time for hard good byes. Of course we all promised one another that we’d see each other again. I really do hope that this is true, and until that day, we will continue to make a difference each and every day by sharing the power of mentorship.

The later I stay up to blog, the less sense I will start to make, so seeing as it’s 2 in the morning I should probably hit the lights. Until tomorrow!

Day 2: Washington DC

Although today was not the day of the actual conference, it was most definitely a day to remember.

We got to sleep in until 8:30 (As far as the Ultimate Adventure goes, that’s pretty late). 

Mom and I hit up the lovely buffet and then navigated our way through DC, sweating profusely, but still managing to make it to the National Academy of Science (NAS) before 11:30.

I saw Sarah standing outside on the phone (calling me of course) and we had one of those dramatic running reunion hugs. It was quite fantastic.

Anne Merchant, the Director of Outreach and Marketing at the academy was there to meet us and introduced us to Ralph J. Cicerone, the PRESIDENT of The National Academy of Sciences! He wanted to know about what Jordan and I are doing, and told a couple of amazing stories.  He told us one about a woman who never graduated from high school and now works for NAS. It was really incredible.

 After our little chat (not actually little by any standards), we received a tour of the building including seeing the auditorium where past presidents have spoken, and the Great Hall which was ornately embellished with pictures of significant scientific discoveries. 

Continuing with the day, we had a very delicious lunch, then strolled to the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History. The phenomenal part though was going behind the scenes and learning a little about about the 600,000 mammals stored in the museum. They have the largest collection in THE ENTIRE WORLD.  Each of the cabinets picture below contains hundreds of species and this is just one hallway of one room.

We learned about secret stuff that hasn't been released to the general public. I better not say anything else, or I’ll probably have the CIA and the FBI busting down my door.

Kristofer Helgen, the Curator of the exhibit-has discovered over 100 species of mammals! He gathered a group of five female scientist to share their educational journey with us. It was insightful to hear all that they've done, and they were reassuring that we’re on the right track. Many wished they had a mentor earlier on in their career.

They shared their experiences with mentorship and how big of an impact it really does have. Speaking of mentorship, I’m going to need some sleep tonight if I want to be awaketomorrow so I better hit the sack.

Tune in for my next installment J

Day 1: Washington DC

Wow, I can’t believe I get to go on another adventure! This time, my journey will take me to Washington DC where I will be partaking in the Teaching and Learning Conference.

Representatives from Underwriter’s Laboratories and Disney along with the National Academy of Science will all be on the panel, and they chose Jordan and I because our mentors are from UL and they wanted to represent both mentors and mentees. I wish all the girls were here, but we'll do our best to fully represent the group.  We will be presenting on the power of mentor ship and I’m beyond excited to go and recap the amazing time I had in California.

Sarah will be there and that would be reason enough to go, but the fact that I get to share my journey is a privilege.

This time around it will be my mother accompanying me on my travels. She is quite the experienced business woman so this whole process is like a piece cake to her. 

We plan to tour all the national monuments and it's rumored the infamous Bill Gates will be there!

The whole point of the trip though is really about sharing how powerful mentor ship is, and to hopefully inspire others to think the same way. If people recognize the importance of mentorship, we can expand the current network to reach even more kids with the same dreams we have.

Month Later

It's been a little over a month since my last entry, and the world did not take it's time sucking me back into life as a high school student.

A few things I'm looking forward to are the starting of a club that I am heading. The whole point is to get girls in grades 3-5 interested in science through fun activities. I'm working with 3 other girls and we are each assigned a subject area to teach. Mine is Applied Science, but there is also Computer Science, Mathematics, and Robotics.

Hopefully we can get her on the road by the second week of February, but at this point, everything is tentative.

In other news, I will be attending a conference in DC this March to talk more about how incredible Ultimate Mentor Adventure was. I mean let's be honest, its pretty easy to do. I can expand when I know more.

Last little tidbit of info is that over Christmas my mom scoured 3 different stores searching for a little Lego female scientist. (They are packaged so you can't tell which of the 16 you're getting.) She randomly bought  one having given up the chase and when I opened it Christmas day it happened to be the scientist.

I happen to think that we look a lot alike. :)

Friday, Day 6

I'm terribly sad to say that my time in California has come to an end. It was probably the most life-changing week that I've ever lived and I'll be putting all the knowledge I received to the best possible use I know how.

We ended our week by visiting Disney Studios and having lunch with Victoria Alonso, who currently holds the title as VP of Visual Effects at Marvel Studios. She was born in Argentina with virtually nothing and worked her way to the United States and now she has it all.

I took a full 2 pages of notes on what she had to say because she was throwing advice out constantly. At the end when she started talking about how we're worth it, I got a little emotional. It was just inspiring to see such a powerful and funny woman take the time to talk to us.

Immediately after lunch, we were bussed back to our hotel where we had minimal time to prepare for our big debut. I, personally am working on confidence in who I am and how I look so I chose to wear my glasses (which shouldn't be a big deal). We got to spend some time in the basement of the El Capitan getting our hair and make-up done.

As we were all hanging out in the green room, Barbra Guthrie was kind enough to get us bags of candy to snack on. We were just casually eating popcorn and candy, when Jamie Alexander walks into the room and I'm pretty sure there was an audible gasp. She sat with us and we chatted more about growing up and being confident in who you are.

At one point, Jamie, Victoria, and the great-great nephew of Walt Disney were all in the same room with us. It was a little crazy with all these high powered people surrounding us, but I always felt right at home.

Soon it was time to go on stage and Lilia led us up to the stage where there was a lot of last minute bathroom breaks and panic. We somehow managed to coordinate ourselves into the line-ups we had rehearsed and soon we were on stage in front of a crowd of 1,000 people.

The biggest surprise at the end was the gifts of $1000 donated by UL and a new Kindle HD fire given to us by Dolby Laboratories. The donations are expected to be used in helping us with the Ultimate Mentor Adventure Leadership Council which was created with us as the initial batch of girls.

Oh course we got to view Thor:The Dark World again, and at one point I glanced around and a good majority were snoozing away just from the exhaustion of all the excitement.

The night didn't end there though. We still had our Highland Park gift cards that needed spending, so we grabbed a quick dinner and hit up as many stores as we could. Of course the largest candy store in the world was my favorite, with all its sugary goodness.

The final event of the night was winding down with some girl time up in Sarah's room. We ordered some room service (Thanks Barbra) and all huddled around to let our feelings out. Most of the girls stayed until 11:30, but Sydney and I stuck around until 12:30 against our parents wishes.

It was hard to say good bye to Sarah, but I'm certain that won't be the last I see of her. This also won't be the final entry you hear from me

This whole crazy, amazing, not-enough-words-to-describe-how-I-feel-about-it week is truly a blessing. The women I met and the experiences I gained are life skills that many people are jealous they couldn't have. Walking away I have a better understanding of how the world works and I'm already looking toward my future and what it holds. All I have to say is thank you so much to the wonderful people that helped me get to where I am today.

Thursday, Day 5

Today was a day full of secrets. There were lots of backstage and  behind the scenes tours where the public is never allowed. Seeing Disney Land and a Marvel sound stage could easily be described as epic.

We began the day with a tour of Disney Land. The special part of this tour was that we were in the park before it had opened so we got to see all the workers doing maintenance. In addition, there were  different people that we stopped and talked to along the way.

All of these people were incredible. We learned about roller coaster operating systems, steam engines, firework shows, painting maintenance at Disney, and the hydraulics system of a ride.

We were chauffeured around in golf carts and got to see the entire back side of Disney Land. I can tell you one thing for sure - the backside is nowhere near as magical as the park itself, but boy is it huge.

There were departments for anything you can imagine and it was actually kind of crazy seeing all that goes into the upkeep of it. At the end of the tour we got to finish with a Thor exhibit and "travel" to Asgard and meet the character Thor.Although this guy had a glue on mustache and wasn't Chris Hemsworth, he came pretty darn close.

Our tour ended on a sad yet happy note with our tour guide getting a little teary eyed. Here we had just met the man 3 hours prior and he was emotional. I couldn't believe that he really thought that much of us and it was inspiring for sure.

We then made a some-what quick pit stop at a restaurant in down-town Disney. It was one of the more high end places, and for once it wasn't a buffet. The coolest part of lunch was that we got to speak with a lot of the same people that we had talked to at UL again.

Lilia was again pushing us for time and we got a 5-minute warning to scarf down our food before we headed off again, but this time for backstage at Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Everyone had been telling us how big of a deal this was from the second we knew it was happening and after visiting the site I understood why. It was the whole set for everything that goes into filming for the show and we also talked to a lot of the people that help contribute to making the show what it is.

We first got to see a little bit of the set inside the actual airplane and talk to one of the cast members about how she got to where she is and what it's like to live the life she does. We were also introduced to one of the creators of the show which was pretty surreal.

Next we headed on over to design and talked to the lead guy in charge of all the set and intricate prop designs. He had a clear dedication for his job that was cool to see. That was pretty similar to the passion I saw in the post-production area, where people actually put all the film together and add the CG animations. We even got a little preview into upcoming episodes.

Traveling back to the conference room meant we got the chance to talk to the producer of the show and asked him a non-stop flow of questions that you would expect from a group of curious girls. My contacts were extremely dry by this point and although that may not matter to tell you, it was driving me insane at the time.

We finished off by getting to explore the rest of the plane and being visited by another cast member, Chloe Bennet. She was extremely comfortable around all us 10 girls and I was surprised how she was never overwhelmed.

After a some-what long bus ride back to the hotel full of girl talk (That seemed to be a common theme for us today) we got to find a place to eat some grub and then get the chance to use our gift cards to purchase whatever our little hearts desired. I personally chose a World of Color blanket among other things and I'm quite proud of my new blanket.

Tomorrow is the day our documentary short premiers and we no longer have a jam-packed schedule. What the actual heck, where has the time gone? I can't even fathom that my journey is coming to an end and I kind of forgot how to live in the real world. Okay, MUST SLEEP. More tomorrow,

Andrea Polis

None of me? There's a reason for that!

Wednesday, Day 4

Surprise, another FABULOUS day out here. Yet again another early rise with the addition of having to pack up all of our belongings to bring to our next hotel, The Grand California, but I'll get to that later.

We had some difficulties figuring out the suitcase situation, but eventually left for Underwriters Laboratories. We met the VP of education - Barb Guthrie. She was full of energy and incredibly excited for us to be there. Not going to lie, my first impression was “What the heck, this is an office.” I soon learned that the building was much more than that and also has an entire lab behind it. It felt very similar to my wood shop class as a freshman.

We were each given our own adorable, personalized, construction hats. Although we didn't really need them, it was fun. After a little tour around the building we were directed outside to the parking lot.

Waiting for us in the parking lot were 3 different fire trucks from several California counties.  They had separate stations set up for us to experience different things that a fireman might encounter. At one, we learned about hazardous chemicals and got to climb up into a fire truck to see how it's really done.

In another, we were told how the technical stuff worked behind the trucks, especially concerning the ladder trucks.  In the last station we got to experience what it was like to put out a simulated fire. UL had gone to the trouble of purchasing fire resistant suits so that we could experience what its like to put out a real fire. All the firefighters were incredibly nice and funny.

We then proceeded into the lab where we were show some of the actual tests that the lab techs do on a day-to-day basis. Some of these tests included Hail Damage Test, Hair Suction, Rain water, Impact, and Microwave test to name a few.

It was so weird to see that the things they do to test safety are normal things that would be done to the product anyway. I could totally picture myself working there and having a ton of fun.

Lunch was fabulous. Though not as good as Tender Greens, we did get a feast of mass proportions followed by 4 different cake options for dessert. The coolest part of lunch though wasn't the food, it was the people we talked to.

The whole time we were eating we had a panel of lovely individuals in front of us, one of them was my mentor, Sarah Escosa! I had already talked to her a little bit earlier in the day and we took some cute little pictures together, but I got the chance to listen to her and a bunch of other amazing women talk about what they do and how they ended up where they are today.

After UL we still had the Discovery Science center to visit. This place was basically a California version of the Science museum, but on a smaller scale. It really was cool though, especially this grocery game where you went and had to scan the most “green” items, and the whole thing was really incredible.

We then had another panel of fabulous women to talk to and learn from. I feel like I’m getting a life cheat by getting the chance to learn about the life experience of these women in addition to excellent advice that will help guide me. I really hope that there are girls back home that would be interested in hearing about this because the world is so much bigger than you think and until you get out and experience it you don’t really realize it.

There's more I could write about, but I'm not attempting to make a novel here and I'm sure there are things you have that need doing so this is where I'll end it for now, thanks for reading!

Andrea Polis